Mustaqbal Hails Aoun's 'Great Sense of National Responsibility'

Al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc on Tuesday applauded the latest stance voiced by President Michel Aoun over the issue of representing the pro-Hizbullah Sunni MPs in the new government.

“The bloc welcomed the president’s stance which rejected this crippling demand,” it said in a statement issued after its weekly meeting.

“His stance reflects a great sense of national responsibility and keenness on the formation of the government as soon as possible in order to confront the impending threats to the Lebanese and their economy and safety,” the bloc added.

“The approach through which President Aoun and Prime Minister-designate (Saad) Hariri are facing this obstruction is a sound approach, seeing as it is not right to group together MPs belonging to separate blocs which are already represented in the government,” Mustaqbal went on to say.

It also noted that all parties “had known from the very beginning that such a crippling demand would be faced by a categorical and decisive rejection from the PM-designate and from large segments of the Lebanese and their political blocs.”

The government was on the verge of formation on October 29 after the Lebanese Forces accepted the portfolios that were assigned to it but a last-minute hurdle over the representation of the aforementioned MPs surfaced.

Hizbullah insisted that the six Sunni MPs should be given a seat in the government, refraining from providing Hariri with the names of its own ministers in a bid to press him.

Aoun threw his support behind Hariri and rejected the demand during a TV interview, slamming the “use of delay as a political tactic” and insisting that the aforementioned MPs are “individuals and not a bloc.”